According to new documents filed in the antitrust lawsuit against the search giant, at one point, Riot Games told Google they were going to launch their own mobile app stores. There were allegations about major deals signed with the companies. Over the course of three years, the two companies will be paid about $360 million and $30 million, respectively.
One document shows Karen Aviram Beatty reporting back from a conversation she had with the CFO of the company. "Zerza claims that if this deal falls through, they will launch their own mobile distribution platform, partner with another major mobile company, and withdraw from St." It looks like the company was happy with how the deal turned out, since they haven't yet launched their own app store on mobile.
Another document is a deposition from an unnamed witness that seems to be someone who is or was involved with a program called Project Hug. The witness in the deposition said that Riot Games was considering a competing app store. The witness said that the two companies that were the most direct with them were Riot and Activision.
The Project Hug agreements came to light as part of a complaint. According to the amended complaint, the deals are designed to prevent the developer from opening a competing store or distributing its apps outside of the Play Store.
In order to get developers to stick with Play instead of making their own stores, Project Haggle was designed to entice developers to stay with Play instead of making their own stores. It was removed from the Play Store after it was brought to it's attention. The new documents seem to show that the two companies were considering striking out on their own.
They pushed back on the accusations. There are programs that prevent developers from creating their own app stores, and there are programs that prevent them from competing with GOOGLE PLAY.
Business conversations are mischaracterized by epic.
Business conversations are mischaracterized, according to Michael Appel. Project Hug and similar programs give incentives for developers to give benefits and early access to users when they release new or updated content; it does not prevent developers from creating competing app stores. The program shows that Google Play competes fairly with other platforms for developers, who have a lot of choices for distributing their apps and digital content.
Joe Christinat, a spokesman for the company, said that the company testified in court that they never entered into an agreement that would have prevented them from opening their own store. It was never asked, pressured, or made us agree not to compete with GOOGLE PLAY. We submitted evidence that proves this. Unreal's allegations are not true.
A request for comment was not replied to by Riot.
There is a list of more than 20 companies that have signed deals with Google as of July 22, 2022. The companies listed are big in the gaming industry.
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